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Brilliant Live Hip Hop band release average debut.Shocker!

A Hip Hop band should always bring something fresh to the table especially with there debut and The Platform by Dilated is fine, but it's by no means a classic.The beats and scratches are handled well by Babu, and they are the albums strongest point throughout.Work the angles and The Platform are classic hip hop songs which encapsulate that scratch heavy Dilated sound brilliantly, also ear drums pop is a fun posse cut noteworthy because it contains a diss aimed squarely at eminem. Evidence and Rakka are clever thought provoking m.c's with smart wordplay, who when they kick it up a gear can spit fire and bounce of each other really well.Towards the end of the album though they both do start to lag their styles are to similar and they sound a little laboured. Dilated are amazing live and their shows would get 5 stars any day of the week with this reviewer, its just sad they cud not bottle their magic and there debut is good rather than great.Dilated's image of that long suffering Hip Hop band on the road, Rocking shows travelling keeping it real when they could easily sell out and make a fortune, should make you a fan and admire them as artists but sadly it doesn't make their debut any more exciting, all in all it's a quality album just not life changing and its also sad because Dilated chose not to build on this template just repeat it in their future albums.

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Dilated Peoples' debut album

"The Platform" was released in 2000 and was the debut album from Dilated Peoples, a West Coast Hip Hop crew consisting of Evidence, Rakaa and DJ Babu. The LA act were seen to follow on form the same sort of direction that Jurassic 5 and Tha Alkaholiks pushed on in LA specifically as they come with an esacpe from the Gangsta Rap that the Hi Hop of the area was known for (and had been competed with solely by Oakland acts prior to this when The Pharcyde, Souls Of Mischief and Digital underground had before through the nineties.

1. "So May I Introduce To You"(Intro)

2. "The Platform"

After having DJ Babu cut things up on the turntables, you see that they finally get into things here and show what direction they will take the music with this titular track tot he release and it find that Babu comes with even more of the DJ premier-esque DJ scratches in the hook to set the MCs up as they get down to things and give a chance to let everyone what they are about with their alternative material.

**Four Stars**

3. "No Retreat"

It moves on more as you see that Cypress Hill's B-Real joins them on a heavy joint that has them getting down in the pure underground style (that is much more associated with the New York style of around this time). It is a tune that you really can't get enough of, once you have entered it, and you see that they all straight rip it on these freaky beats as they move things on even more as they hype it up with this one.

**Five Stars**

4. "Guaranteed"

You see that the kind of thing that was hear don the track prior to this one comes through once again as you get even more of the heavy beats they get a raw head bop being forced upon the listener as they do things and get the two MCs going off on some beats from The Hills' Alchemist (who was seen to collaborate wit them on each and every album they brought out since this year).

**Five Stars**

5. "Right On"

They ensure that the quality of the music is maintained as they get into this one and pound through it on top of some very relevant beats, that have a big of a jazzy twist to them to force listeners to draw their alternative nature to the movement that occurred ten years before they were finally able to drop this as their debut with the Jazz Rap of A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, Del La Soul and many others. Here they get help from Tha Alkaholiks and just kill it.

**Five Stars**

6. "The Main Event" (Lude)

7. "Service"

After having seen that you get even more from The Alchemist here as he comes through strong with the beats, whilst you get DJ Babu on the cut skill giving more hype by laying out some scratched-in samples from the likes of Eric B & Rakim, with this one you get the two MCs showing love for their DJ as he does the beats and does even more of the chops as they talk about their relationship with him since 1992 and how strong his skills are.

**Five Stars**

8. "Ear Drums Pop"

This is a hard cut from the act and one that seems to stand out within the thing as you see that with it you get them coming out with some powerful music that has them coming out with a massively-hype joint from them that seems to have them working towards fields that they aren't are closely connected to, but it still lead sot them creating a tune that feels right by the way they turn the club aspects around into their style.

**Five Stars**

9. "Years In The Making"

You see some grimy beats coming through on this one and it means that you get them tracing back their lives and their association with Hip Hop over the years in how they have gone from the graffiti and B-Boying world to making the transition to becoming MCs and the kinds of journeys they have come on as they have got to where they are here. The structure is quite simplistic and it means that you can effectively connect to their tale.

**Four Stars**

10. "Annihilation"

With this one you see that The Alchemist comes through strong once again and he uses even more Old School groves to motivate the MCs as they do their thing on the record and come in hard with rhymes which use alterative approaches to tame the violence that is prevalent in the culture of their immediate surrounding to make even more of the heavy Hip Hop music that very few are able to match.

**Five Stars**

11. "Expanding Man"

Here you get a track on the release that seems to hold on strong and keep the album rolling well as you see that they come up with even more of the raw things that will have brought in the listeners to start off with and they ensure that it shows no signs of anything faltering or losing the sorts of flow that listeners will have come to expect from them by this point in it all. They come up with yet more original themes in a way that is completely again the ways of mainstream acts in this genre.

**Five Stars**

12. "The Last Line Of Defence"

Here you see that they keep the fly material coming as you see that they make a massive impact with their rhymes and show how well they are able to use the funkiness and complexities of their rhymes t make some raw music that you really won't be able to be pulled out of once you have been taken in by Evidence's engaging flowing styles and his ways of doing things unlike any others at the time.

**Five Stars**

13. "Triple Optics"

Here they are seen to go off with yet more of the Old School influence and so it is bound to force lots of the purists in (I can't see how they can't ignore it) as here they use the main elements that went into the early eighties material and show how they are able to make this kind of thing (which by this point was considered ('alternative' to ensure that they make a massive impact an fit into contemporary trends with the strength of the MCs and their skills.

**Five Stars**

14. "The Shape Of Things To Come"

They bring yet another nanger of a jam here as they power through with another banging jam that has them jamming in a manner that just can't be matched by ny others as you see that they use more of the kinds of fresh things that were heard in the 1979-1982 Hip hop trends to boost things as they show how confident they are that their style will become so prominent that it takes over the game.

**Five Stars**

15. "Work Of Angles"

Before working into a bonus remix, this one ends the album off and has the trio laying down a track that shows how they are unable to pull out any wackiness (at least when speaking on this time in their career) . You see that they work off what sounds like a Kut Master Kurt's interpretation of the Audio Two's classic "Top Billin'" joint and it appears to lead the rest of the music in that direction to make for pure greatness.

**Five Stars**

This is banger of an album from the Dilated Peoples and one that really gets their album off to a great start as you see that they come out with an album that you can't really find any clear weak into n as all the beats are heavy and they match the direction of the rhymes perfectly as they don't really go in any distinct direction, but manage to make a massive impact with their original style. It is a shame that they couldn't stay consistent over the yeas (and did even dip into the mainstream for a brief period) as this is such a big one.

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Product Details

Disc #1 Tracklisting1 So May I Introduce To You2 Platform3 No Retreat4 Guaranteed5 Right On6 Main Event7 Service8 Ear Drums Pop9 Years In The Making10 Annihilation11 Expanding Man12 Last Line Of Defence13 Triple Optics14 Shape Of Things To Come15 Work The Angles16 Ear Drums Pop